WELLINGTON - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expects to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday on the sidelines of the meeting of the Asia-Pacific trade group APEC, a New Zealand government spokesperson said on Thursday.

The meeting is “currently confirmed”, the spokesperson said in a message. It will be their first meeting in person since 2019, although they spoke by telephone in 2021.

Ms Ardern flew to Cambodia this week to attend the East Asia Summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), hold two-way meetings and attend related events.

She spent the past few days in trade and political meetings in Vietnam and will now head to the APEC summit in the Thai capital of Bangkok.

In a statement ahead of her trip Ms Ardern said that with major risks to the global recovery and serious geopolitical tensions, she planned to talk to leaders about what could be done together to help relieve the pressures in the region, while maintaining sustainable economic growth.

“There is no easy answer, and solutions will not come easily, but maintaining dialogue and finding common ground on areas we can all cooperate is the only sensible way through these currently turbulent times we all find ourselves in,” Ms Ardern said in the statement. REUTERS